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THE LIGHTS CAME BACK on while she was in the bathroom. She had rushed inside as soon as Damond came out. Janae had thought about retreating while he was gone but didn’t trust herself not to fall down the steps in the dark. Not with the way her legs were still feeling like jelly. Now she was holding on to the sink looking at the woman in the mirror. A woman who looked as if she had been thoroughly ravaged.
And boy had she. Janae had been expecting something more rough and tumble, instead she had gotten sensual and passionate. Something that had her stomach still quivering, her hands still shaky. Intellectually she knew it was the adrenaline still in her bloodstream, but the rest of her credited it all to the man in the other room. Stalling long enough, she gathered her robe tight and opened the door, damn him for being propped up in the bed looking right at it.
“I guess I should go back to my room...”
“You said you came here for both.” Damond flipped the covers again. “Let me do my job and be your sleep buddy...for the night.”
“But the lights-”
“Forget about the damn lights and get in this bed!”
Rolling her eyes, she walked forward only to have him shake his head.
“Without the polar bear robe, how the hell did you have room for that?”
Janae laughed and the light tension hovering in the room eased.
“I lined my suitcase with it and put everything else on top. I didn’t know how cold it would be up here.”
“Well, ditch it. I’ll be keeping you warm.”
Janae saw the intense flash of desire spark in his eyes before he banked it, and the following shiver that traveled her body had nothing to do with the temperature. For the second time she dropped the robe and hurried into bed, cuddling against his still warm skin. He was right, as soon as he wrapped his arms around her she felt warm, and within a few seconds relaxed as well. Soon her heartbeat evened out, and Janae actually felt like she could fall asleep even though it was barely ten. The events of the night making it feel much later.
“Tell me something Professor, when was the last time you were with a man?”
Oh boy. “Why is that something you even want to know?”
“Humor me.”
“It doesn’t matter but almost two years.” Strangely embarrassed by her truth.
“It matters, no wonder you’re so uptight.”
Janae’s head snapped up sharply. “You can’t help yourself from saying offensive things can you.”
She went to pull away, but he held on tight.
“I wasn’t trying to be offensive just telling the truth. Nothing to get your feathers ruffled over.” Damond smoothed a hand along her shoulder.
“Well, I don’t appreciate it,” Janae snapped. “How long has it been for you? I assume not long since you’re traveling around with condoms.”
“A smart woman like you should really stop making assumptions. I didn’t come here with condoms. I bought them after an attractive but annoyingly serious professor broke into my house and refused to leave.”
Janae didn’t know which one she was more surprised at, the compliment or his admission about the condoms.
“I didn’t break in. I had the code and you didn’t answer the question.”
“Keep telling yourself that. As for me...it’s been nine months.”
“Seriously? That’s like two years in sexual terms for men. No wonder you-” She jerked her hand up and down. “You know, all the time.”
“I do this.” Damond repeated her hand motion while grinning. “Because it feels good, not because I’m hard up.”
“Okay sure...whatever. Why has it been so long? You’re good looking and charming when you want to be. Despite your habit of being blunt, I wouldn’t think you’d have much trouble in the sex department.”
The room was quiet while Damond decided if he was going to answer or not. She waited, her small hand playing with the little hairs on his chest.
“I broke up with my long-term girlfriend a year ago, and after a few months decided to get over her with a woman or two—warming my bed. And that was the last time I had some loving before I decided to go the celibate route and focus on my work...until tonight.”
Janae was not anticipating that answer. Not the fact he’d been in a long-term relationship fairly recently, nor the faint hurt tinging his voice when he mentioned it. She doubted he realized he’d exposed a truth. That the women hadn’t help ease the pain of his ex and that was the real reason he’d decided to go without sex for so long.
Instead of saying any of that she asked instead, “How do you define long term?”
“We were together for a little over two years before we split.” He clarified.
“Wow, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, it was time. What’s your excuse for going without?”
“I don’t know. I usually prefer to be dating or officially in a relationship before sex enters the picture. It all started to seem like more trouble than it was worth. Life happened and before I knew it almost two years had passed. The longer you go without...the easier it becomes not to think about it.”
“Speak for yourself.” Damond muttered
“Actually, why don’t we stop speaking at all? I’m tired.”
“Go to sleep then, no one's stopping you.”
Damond could have been up writing now that the electricity was back, but had zero desire to be anywhere that wasn’t up against her warm naked skin at the moment.
“I really should have a scarf for my head.” Janae complained on a yawn after a few minutes of silence. “My hair is going to be so knotted tomorrow.”
“Damnit, woman.”
Grumbling, Damond got up pulling the head rag she’d left in the basement out the top dresser drawer. He tossed it to her before turning off the lights in the room.
“I wondered where this disappeared to! You’re a thief.”
“I was going to give it back...eventually. Now put it on and let’s go to bed.”
“A rude thief at that.” She noted, doing a sloppy braid of her hair, then slipping the silk on her head. The small ritual added some normalcy to their surreal situation.
“Thank you.” She gave him a quick kiss on the mouth before snuggling against his side. Hoping he understood that the thanks was for more than a scarf.
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING JANAE woke up alone, but with the smell of food wafting past her nose. Looking around the room for the rarity of a clock, since she didn’t have her cell, and actually found one, seeing it was only nine in the morning. Gingerly rolling out of bed she donned her robe and crept down the steps, or so she thought. As soon as she hit the bottom Damond called out from the kitchen.
“Why don’t you get settled and grab some of this food before it gets stone cold.”
“Ummm...okay.”
She ended up taking a quick shower when her body could have used a long hot soak, before joining him in the kitchen. He was done eating, but sat drinking a second cup of coffee, keeping her company while she ate. He barely looked like he was functioning which amused her since he was only up a couple hours earlier than normal, not to mention he’d gone to bed way sooner than he usually did.
They had a slightly stilted conversation for twenty minutes before Damond announced he was about to catch up on writing. She agreed she would be doing the same and they parted ways. The rest of the day flowed mostly how the last one had, except they gravitated to the kitchen around the same time for dinner instead of avoiding each other.
*
WHILE THEY’D GONE BACK to eating dinner nightly Damond didn’t tease her, at least not sexually. They joked, debated and he was as vexing as ever. But what they weren’t doing in the last five days was touching, kissing, or having sex between the sheets, or anywhere else for that matter.
At first, she was glad Damond hadn’t thrown it in her face, an act she didn’t put pass him. Though honestly she wasn’t embarrassed at all. She had loved everything about their night together. Literally everything about it, from fooling around in the living room to what they’d done in the bedroom. It all had felt daring and exciting to her and frankly she wanted to do it again.
Janae considered herself a rational, realistic adult. While she hadn’t foreseen them having sex, now that they had, she saw no reason to put the cat back in the bag. Which ironically putting a feline in any container was hard as hell, almost as hard as pretending you hadn’t had sex with a person you saw every day. Which told her Damond was going out of his way to act like it never happened.
This annoyed and even pissed her off a little. No woman wanted her sexuality to be ignored, plus she knew damn well he’d enjoyed it as much as she had. Yes, they both had work so she didn’t expect them to go at it 24/7, like a couple of teenagers left alone for the weekend. But five days later and he hadn’t leered at her, tried to grope her or given her even one suggestive comment. So tonight as they finished a perfectly enjoyable dinner and conversation, she confronted him. Blocking his path as he went to head out.
Damon looked at her distractedly. “Out of the way Professor, it’s your night for the dishes.”
“The dishes can wait.”
That got his attention and he looked up from where he was writing notes in that little book.
“Something is more important to you than being clean and organized?”
“Stop it, I hate when you act like I have OCD. Having dirty dishes in the sink for a while won’t hurt anything. I want to talk to you.”
“Okay...no need to get touchy.” He tucked his pen and notebook away and gave her his attention. “What is it? Though whatever it is the answer is most likely no.”
Sometimes conversations with him felt like talking to an old grumpy man that wanted everyone off his lawn. Janae decided she’d be better off speaking his language—bluntness.
“Why haven’t you tried to seduce me again?”
“Whoa, back up!” Damond actually took a step back giving her a once over. “I didn’t seduce you the first time. Did you forget you offered me a hand-”
“Whatever, why haven’t we slept together since last Saturday. You haven’t even attempted...” Janae trailed off, feeling like a fool as he looked at her oddly. “Never mind.”
“Wait.” He pulled her back as she tried to leave. “How was I supposed to know you wanted to be together again? Hell, honestly Janae I figured you might want to forget about it. So I’ve been letting it ride, frankly I should get an award for my good behavior.”
Janae moved to stand very close to him. “I don’t regret it and I don’t want to forget it either.”
“Draw me a map, cause I’m lost here.” Damond ran a hand over his jaw in frustration. “What exactly do you want?”
“Only what you want to give.” She told him truthfully.
“What I want to give? Well, I have been wanting to kiss you, but was afraid of getting a crook in my neck from kissing your short-”
“Forget it, you’re never serious!”
“Damnit wait.” Damond spun her around, lifting her up in the process and putting her on the kitchen island. “That’s better.”
Damond kissed her slowly, savoring the taste of her on his tongue again. God this woman must be insane to think he hadn’t thought about her day and night. Shit, he was eating dinner with her just to get an hour of her time each day, anything to be around her. Of course he’d noticed the looks she’d given him. How she managed to brush up against him at least once every time they shared space.
He’d been craving having her flesh in his hands and wanting to have her hips against his every day. Would have jumped her the morning after instead of cooking, if he had thought she was down for it. Janae had said she wasn’t the fling type and that was all he had to give. Sucking on her bottom lip he eased back. Loving the dazed look he was able to put in her eyes.
“You were right before...I can’t let this be a distraction.”
Janae softly bit his lip. “Neither can I.”
“My work...” He trailed his tongue down the soft column that was her neck. “It’s important to my livelihood.”
“So is mine.” She moaned out as he squeezed a breast. “But weren’t you the one who said sex gets the creative juices flowing.”
Damond laughed low, and oh so damn sexy next to her ear. “That was me, wasn’t it?”
“Yeess, and now I concur with your assessment.” Janae moved her hand in between them and grabbed his hard shaft. “I can see it already has something flowing in you.”
“Damn right!” Damond took her mouth again. When he finally let them come up for air, he picked her up until she wrapped her legs around him. “Enough talk.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Janae clung to his neck. “I want more action.”